Tag: Fictional Characters

Today is Valentine’s Day, the day of love. A day to celebrate romance and the love of those around us. But romance sometimes doesn’t end with happily ever after. Sometimes love can cause pain, heartache, or worse, death. Yes, love can be a destructive emotion. Just ask these fictional characters how it worked out for them. Here are the best books that show the worst forms of romantic love: Continue reading “Destructive Love: Books With Devastating Relationships”→

I was going to list memorable fathers of literature but then I remember that I did a similar post two years ago so I am just going to link to that post. I only listed seven but if during the day I come up with more I will update the page:

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There needs to be an open discussion about mental health. And what better way to stand up to the stigma than to read fiction books that portray the topic perfectly. Readers appreciate to have characters that we can connect with and see as real people. So for Mental Awareness Month, here is a list of books that portray mental illness more realistically:

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This week is the start of Teen Read Week, a national literacy event created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) that tries to encourage teens to be regular readers and library users. This year’s slogan is “Read For The Of It!”

Being a young adult librarian, I can safely say that it is difficult to get teens to read, especially in this day and age. However, I try to stress to my teens the importance of not only reading but the importance of the library. Without all this, they wouldn’t have a place to hang out, to feel safe. Coming to the library frequently and taking advantage of all the resources the library has to offer will help them succeed later in life and I try to instill that philosophy into the teens.

So I thought this was a perfect time to name the books that I read when I was a teenager (not all, we’ll be here all day!). I loved reading for fun, did it whenever I got a chance when I was a teenager.And these books are just a taste of all the different worlds I got to experience when I was a teen…

I always loved reading about magic and witchcraft, but this series not only creased my interest in reading that genre, but introduced me to Libba Bray who I found to be a great storyteller and never left me disappointed. She is probably one of the few YA authors I still read to this day.

Another great supernatural series! I waited in anticipation when the next one in the series would be released and I was sad when it ended. But this is a perfect example of series where it didn’t get too cheesy and knew when to end. It didn’t overdo it and that’s why I treasure this series close to my heart.

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“Votaries and observers of fashion, but not her slaves, we follow her through her versatile path; catch her varied attractions, and present her changes to our readers as they pass before us in gay succession.” La Belle Assemblée, 1812.

Somehow, I cannot picture Elizabeth Bennet reclining on the drawing room sofa, idly flipping through the pages of the latest issue of La Belle Assemblée or The Lady’s Magazine. And yet, if she had indulged in a bit of frivolous fashion magazine perusal, what advice might she have read there and what images might she have seen?

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. The story itself begins in the year 1811 and concludes at the close of 1812. In June of 1812, Elizabeth Bennet is home at Longbourn, anxiously awaiting the July arrival of her…

I am ashamed to say that this took a lot of thinking. I love reading diverse books and for me to take so long to compile a list of only ten shows that we need more of them. But I managed to come up with these top ten (links go to Goodreads):

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Because while they are so important, characters can also affect how you feel about the book in its entirety. If you are overcome by the negative characteristics, you might forget about everything else that’s good about the novel and just focusing on the bad. So that is why this week, I will be talking about likeability of characters.

As book lovers, we are bound to have a personal connection with the characters, which of course is natural. When we read, we’re entering into another world, trying to get a sense of our surroundings, develop a deep connection. So in order for us to like this new world, we have to like the people who are in it, i.e. the characters. It’s only expected. But is having that deep connection with the book characters hindering our own experience with this new world? Are we allowing characters’ particular personalities judge a book unfairly?